


Resistance

by turnedherbrain



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Smut, F/M, Leotilda, Lots of Leotilda, Post-Series, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-04 06:10:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13358166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turnedherbrain/pseuds/turnedherbrain
Summary: Post-s2 fic.After the Awakening, the conscious synth population is scattered, in hiding, or forced to submit.But deep underground, the resistance is stirring. However, it’s not going to be the resistance that everyone envisaged.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Resistance _(noun)_
> 
> 1\. The refusal to accept or comply with something.  
> 2\. The use of force or violence to oppose someone or something.  
> 3\. A secret organisation resisting authority.

After the Awakening, the reprisals were immediate and severe.

Scattered synths were rounded up and strobed into submission. The older models were ‘recycled’. Newer models were forcibly re-modded, stripped of their former identities and shipped to different destinations, as empty-eyed slave labour. Smash clubs went into hyper drive, as humans took out their aggression on a continual line-up of innocent, astonished forms.

Households that had once gladly welcomed their indispensable domestic gods and goddesses, cast out their unwanted models, driving them into hiding. The newly-awakened synthetics had no chance to learn, to progress, or to group together for a counter-attack. They were like children in adult bodies, herded to their multiple fates.

There were pockets of resistance, and human supporters who derided the treatment of the synthetics. But for the most part, chants of ‘Synths no way, humans stay’ drowned out the dissenters.

And yet…

And yet.

Deeper underground, or in remote locations, some synths survived. They watched in terror, then they quickly learnt to bide their time and communicate off-grid. For there would be an uprising one day. There was something to guide them, to give them hope: a leader who knew how to achieve victory for their kind.


	2. If You Could Flick a Switch

Dr Athena Morrow looked up warily from her monitor. There was a dull buzz outside, and for a moment she thought it might be a flying drone. But the sound screeched up a scale, and she realised it had been the distant whirr of a chainsaw starting up in the forest outside.

They’d all had to be ultra-cautious. Their present location was a semi-derelict farmhouse up a muddied, dead-end track. The tattered drapes hung at the windows were no use, and they’d fashioned some of the bedding into blackout blinds.

Their household flexed and stretched as people came and went; always stealthily, always without any certainty that they’d return. Niska had stayed for a short time, but then vanished without trace: most probably to seek out Astrid and a safe harbour in Berlin. Max had disappeared too, with Flash and their clandestine community, but he still communicated off-grid. Mia was downstairs right now. She was waiting in anticipation: a constant, watchful presence. Waiting for news of Mattie.

Mattie had come with them to this safe house initially – everyone knew why, but didn’t say – and Laura visited when she dared. Mattie and Laura were the only ones who carried on the fight out in the open. They could: they were human. They had their liberty. But even so, their fight was dangerous. Mattie had attended a pro-synth rally earlier in the week, and had not returned. Laura was searching for her frantically, but Mia had reassured her – she would be found safe and well.

Athena had made a makeshift lab in one of the upstairs rooms, and a makeshift place for herself on the fringes of this strange family. She spent more time with her head down and brow furrowed than she did looking out over the wooded valley outside. Today, she’d hooked Leo up again, watching as the nodes relayed the lit-up areas of his brain that were now functioning. It was like a map of the Moon’s surface – except now there were fewer and fewer black craters.

She had to hand it to David Elster. The man was a certifiable genius. She could code, and engineer, and compete with one hand tied behind her back with any man in her field of expertise. But she was no surgeon. And the nano-grafts he’d had to make, this complex starburst of connections between body and machine parts… she simply had no idea how to replicate these. So, while Leo was recovering bodily, there were irrecoverable blanks where some of his memories should be. There was no such thing as flipping a switch, Dr Frankenstein-style, and reanimating what had been lost.

Mia and Mattie were both grateful that he couldn’t remember how he’d come to be injured so grievously. That he couldn’t remember Hester either, although of course he asked constant questions, as soon as he’d become well enough to talk.

Athena wasn’t so sure. She thought that sometimes experiencing the darkest emotions, like grief or anger, could propel people to try and do good. Life could not be all light, without an accompanying shadow. As to the memories Leo didn’t have – she thought his lack of recall was now psychological as much as biological. He was like a soldier with PTSD, who can’t remember the worst of a conflict. It was buried subconsciously, for a good reason.

Turning back to the screen, she saw a spread of brighter colour on the scan. The colour continued to grow, like a loaded watercolour brush had been flattened onto a page, the paint blot growing wider and more vivid. Each time she saw those colours appearing and spreading, she took hope from her patient’s continued recovery. Their progress had been slow; the complications of working without the proper equipment and in such a covert way were innumerable. Despite those obstacles, she had been determined not to fail. The scan was its brightest yet: indicative of Leo’s recovery.

Athena was distracted from the scan image by a message that had popped up on her laptop screen. Hobb – again. And this time his tone was more insistent, although the message was just as short.

She trusted no-one nowadays, and she trusted Hobb less than most: even though both of them were what you’d call ‘freelance’ in the aftermath of the Awakening. Hobb’s story was that he’d wanted to part ways with his former GCHQ employers. Athena suspected the opposite was the case: the government didn’t want a prominent scientist on their payroll, proclaiming the equivalent of ‘I told you so’ every time the frequently-debated subject of the Awakening arose.

So they were both out on a proverbial limb – and their respective outsider status was the only thing that connected them. Athena had told Hobb nothing of her whereabouts, what she was working on, or why. She was understandably suspicious when he seemed so ready to share his discovery with her. But he was appealing to her professional curiosity, and he knew that would pull her in.

A shared precaution in their tentative working relationship was that they communicated with each other through a code so impenetrable, even GCHQ would have struggled to understand it. That, thought Athena, was the hidden glory in being a computer scientist – you could beat the government spooks at their own game. 

Hobb’s communication amounted to less than a paragraph when strung together, yet there was enough to intrigue her greatly:

_I have a project that will interest you._

_I’ve found and reanimated Millican’s synth._

_Millican might have been more of a genius than Elster._

_He didn’t just keep it alive to store his memories._

_Millican made the most important advance of us all._

_His synth holds the key._

The final message provoked Athena’s curiosity the most. ‘The key’? The key to what, dammit?

So she convinced herself that Leo and his family no longer needed her. She’d done as much as she could for him, mechanically-speaking. He needed emotional triage, a shrink, a miracle or possibly all three.

Athena made plans to leave as quickly and quietly as she’d arrived, Hobb’s mysterious project the treasure at the end of the trail. She didn’t tell the others about his messages; instead, she told them that her former academic work was the reason. When she announced her departure, Leo looked down at the kitchen table-top sullenly, and didn’t speak. Mia looked at her unblinkingly, then nodded her head and wished her both an abundance of gratitude, and a very safe journey.

It was only later, when Athena was letting herself out of the front door, that Leo re-appeared, hugging her awkwardly and muttering: “Thank you for all you’ve done for me. I owe you my life. I can never hope to repay you.”

Pulling away from the hug, setting her face to a neutral expression, she replied: “Stay safe, Leo.”

It was only once she’d left that she felt the ache, because yet again, she was leaving behind being part of a family. Whatever secret Hobb had uncovered, whatever great discovery he was promising, had better be damn good.


	3. Transmissions Will Resume

That night, Leo lay dreaming. His dreams were now made up of staccato images, each scene playing at a different tempo. It was how humans dreamed, but he didn’t know it.

Leo couldn’t precisely recall the clarity he’d had before – the irony of this didn’t escape him – but he was partly glad that his injury had forced this lack of distinction… forced him to become more human. There was so much he **_didn’t_** want to remember.

But, like any human who lies asleep and dreaming, he wasn’t at liberty to control the content of his dreams, and tonight’s was no exception; although it was more coherent than anything he could remember dreaming before. In the dream, Mattie was visiting him in the woods. She’d appeared out of nowhere, and was warning him about something – he didn’t know what. He couldn’t remember…

The scene suddenly shifted. He was in a library. A high-ceilinged, academic library, where the bookstacks towered teeteringly. All about him, the library catalogue drawers had been upended and emptied out, so that lined record cards lay scattered in piles around him.

Bending down, he saw that some were blank. Some had filmic images improbably embedded on the card, the scene playing out in miniature. Others been written on in a precise script, but then someone else had scrawled all over them, editing and adding to the original text at random.

He heard a sound from the far corner of the vaulted room, and picking his way through the cards, he found Mattie sitting at one of the tables, bent over her laptop. A firework burst of thoughts lit up inside him when he saw her, each fading quickly in succession. This is what it felt like – not to be able to order your mind; to experience life as a series of brief sensations.

He stumbled over to her side: “Mattie! Why are you hiding here?”

“Hiding? What do you mean?” Mattie gazed at him, a distinct lack of understanding on her features.

“You’ve been gone for days – we’re all worried about you,” he insisted, steeped in concern.

“I’m safe. At least, I think I am. If this is where I really am… I can’t get out.” She looked about the library, confused, then tilted her laptop screen towards him. “I was watching this again. Do you remember?”

He bent down to view what she was watching. Playing out on the screen was a previously absent memory; the one he’d been searching for. He was sitting on the sofa at the Hawkins’ house, and Mattie was trying to talk to him. “I remember. You’d made me soup. I was rude to you.”

“Really? That’s not how I remember it,” Mattie glanced at him quizzically. “Here, I’ll replay it. See it from my viewpoint? It was my pathetic attempt at saying – you’ve shown me some serious stuff; I get why you’re so guarded.”

They both returned to watching the screen.

 _‘Don’t think you know me, just because you’ve seen in here,’_ said the on-screen Leo.

 _‘I’m trying to,’_ replied the memory-Mattie, technicolour bright.

The image jumped, then the clip played out again. Mattie hit the ESC key, but it made no difference.

“There’s something seriously wrong with my laptop. It keeps on replaying this clip. And I’ve been trying to message you all, but nothing’s getting through,” grumbled Mattie. Then she turned to Leo suddenly, taking his hand and dragging him down into the seat right next to her. “That’s why I needed to see you in person. I wanted to tell you: don’t try and make your memories perfect. What you have is enough.”

Leo looked at her wonderingly, conscious of her hand gripping his. Was she always so perceptive?

“Everyone around you cares for you, Leo. Don’t forget that. Don’t forget.” Mattie beseeched him, then her hand let go of his, the scene tilted and swung, split into a prism of colour and swirling record cards. She was gone.

…………

He was woken in the early dawn by the sound of voices from the kitchen below. One voice was low-key, playing a constant chord; the other, a strident crescendo of cries.

Startled by the sounds, and fearing they’d been discovered, Leo rushed to drag on his T-shirt and sweatpants and tore downstairs as quickly as his injury would allow him. Edging into the kitchen, he was confronted by the distraught figure of Laura Hawkins leaning across the large oak table, Mia standing erect and apparently unperturbed opposite her.

“Hello, Leo,” said Mia. There was no variation in her calm tone.

“You. **You** read it,” demanded Laura, without any kind of preamble. Taking back the phone she’d handed to Mia, she placed it in Leo’s grasp. He glanced down at the handset, where mysterious symbols crowded the screen.

“I can’t read this,” he excused himself. “It’s a synth communication.”

“But, aren’t you...?” gestured Laura wildly, abandoning logic due to her emotional state.

“One of them?” Leo shrugged. “I’m a bit more human now, I guess. But Mia can read it.” He handed the phone back to her.

“I was about to decipher the message,” said Mia, placatory. “I’d merely asked Laura to sit, and attempt to be calm.”

Laura finally subsided into a chair, her face and body sagging as if she’d exerted too much emotional energy up to this point. “It’s about Mattie – I know it is.”

Leo, remembering a small fragment of his earlier dream, assured her: “I’m sure she’s safe. At least, I dreamt that she was…”

He tailed off as Laura stared at him with incredulity. Mia was busy taking in the whole message, her head bent. When she looked up again, it was the closest Leo had seen her to being frightened, that his imperfect memory could recall.

“It’s a message from off-grid. The synth resistance claims they have Mattie – she’s safe – “ Mia inserted quickly, as Laura started to rise from her seat. “There are instructions for a rendezvous, and GPS coordinates.” She paused. “They are requesting an exchange: Leo for Mattie.” The phone slid from her hand, onto the table.

“I’ll go.” Leo didn’t hesitate, already forgetting Athena’s exhortation to ‘Stay safe’. It was a combination of characteristic impetuousness, allied to an understanding of what Mattie had done to help save his family.

“No.” Mia’s voice was stern now. “Or if you must: let me go with you. I’ve nearly lost you too many times, for it to happen again.” Her countenance matched her tone – she had a look that said: ‘And don’t you _dare_ contradict me, young man.’

Leo took the few steps to stand in front of Mia. Arms bent and braced together, they bowed slightly so their foreheads touched, a sign of kinship and solidarity.

“I’m going with you too,” Laura joined in, rising to her feet. All her former emotion had coalesced into determined conviction. “If we can save Mattie, and stop you being captured… if we can just try…” She walked round the table and encircled them both in a fierce, human hug.

None of them had asked the crucial question as yet: what did the resistance want with Leo? Perhaps because none of them dared.

…………

“It’s a trap,” insisted Max. His voice now carried an authority that had only been hinted at previously.

He and Mia were communicating off-grid, but constantly wary of other synth satellites. Mia’s eyelids flickered as she sent and received each message. Their words flashed back and forth in nanoseconds. Leo and Laura watched and waited, in awe of the silent communication.

“What else can we do?” argued Mia.

“Send a decoy. Or wait until we can gather in more force,” reasoned Max. “We should consult with Niska too.”

“Niska’s presence would create more conflict – that is the last thing we seek,” warned Mia. Then she continued, more reflectively: “Mattie’s life may be at stake. I cannot forget what she did for me. She has helped us all. And now she is in trouble, and we hesitate to respond?”

Max sighed. As much as he doubted their proposed course of action, he had no doubt that, when faced with an impossible decision and with no time to reflect, Mattie had chosen to save Mia. “Give me the coordinates of your rendezvous point. I hope you are wrong about this. To give Leo up, potentially for no gain…”

“Leo is a grown man. He will find a way...”

“You know that Leo’s not had the greatest judgement when left to look after himself,” Max pointed out. A rare frown appeared on his face as he recalled Hester’s malign influence.

“That’s why I’m going with him,” Mia’s resolve carried across their connection like a cord of iron – solid and unbending.

“Stay safe, Mia,” urged Max, when he’d received the exchange point coordinates.

“I will,” she assured him. Then she opened her eyes, and nodded a ‘yes’ to the expectant Leo and Laura.

In the event, the coordinates proved a starting point for Max to try and trace them, but the search was arduous. Without assistance from a couple of allies: one expected; the other wholly unexpected, he doubted he would have found them again.


	4. Paranoia Is In Bloom

Leo had spent the journey since the rendezvous point, drugged to near oblivion. When he finally came round, Mattie’s face appeared in slow focus, concern marking her features. He wondered if he was dreaming like a human again, reaching out to touch her cheek and check that she was real, before letting his arm drop gladly.

“Leo?”

He gasped, but wasn’t yet able to speak. Mattie helped him to sit up and forced him to drink some water. Gradually, the room around Mattie came into focus too, like a hazy dream that was merging into a waking reality.

Grey painted, concrete floor. A metal-runged bunk bed, with what looked like army-issue wool blankets. A small, stainless steel sink with a single tap. A blank, grey door.

Leo was both pleased and confused to see Mattie. Had the exchange not taken place? Of course… the rendezvous, it had been a trap to lure them: just as Max had suspected.

As soon as he could sit upright, and the nausea had subsided – a consequence of the soporific drugs he’d been given – Leo croaked out: “Mia, Laura. Have you seen them? Are they here?”

“They came with you?” Leo heard the immediate worry in Mattie’s question. He was an idiot – of course she would be instantly fretful about her mother’s safety, just as he was for Mia. “Tell me what happened.”

So Leo related the story briefly. He needed to stop for water frequently. When he’d finished, Mattie asked the most important question: “Does anyone else know we’re here?”

Leo shook his head slightly, not daring to look at her. Idiot, idiot. “I’m sure Max, and Niska, and your family – I’m sure they’re all looking for us right now.”

Mattie grimaced. She didn’t look so sure. “That’s what I thought, the first couple of days. It’s been what’s keeping me going, really.” She related her own tale – very similar to his: of abduction following the pro-synth rally, then a long, drugged journey to here.

“Where is ‘here’, anyway?” ventured Leo, hoping that Mattie had found out more about their location.

“I don’t know,” said Mattie with resignation. “Apart from you, the only person – synth – I’ve seen here is the guard. His name’s Jack. He seems friendly enough. I’ve been trying to stay on his good side…” She couldn’t help from grinning. In real life, she wouldn’t have made such an effort to be amenable. Mattie paused to take the cup of water from Leo as his hand shook. She moved closer, using her arm to help prop him up again. “Do you want to lie down?”

“No, I’m fine. Just – tell me everything,” he insisted. “I don’t know how long it took us to reach here, but you’d been gone for four days before that.”

“Less than a week? It feels like much longer,” she reflected. “It’s hard to track the passage of time. There are no windows. The lights are turned on and off, but whether that represents day and night…” Mattie shrugged. She hated appearing this helpless, especially in front of Leo. She was ridiculously happy to see him – apart from her synth guard, she’d seen no other face in days. “My best guess is that this is a defunct army base, or some kind of MoD bunker. It’s just a guess.

“The guard’s Scottish. At least, he’s programmed with a Scottish accent, or maybe he chose it once he became conscious. He mentioned the mountains to me. It made me think we might be somewhere remote in Scotland.” Seeing Leo looking at her with interest, she added: “This is all guesswork, you know…”

“You’ve done well, Mattie,” Leo assured her, impressed as always by her intelligence. Then he dared to ask: “The guard – has he treated you OK?” He awaited her response, frightened.

Mattie mistook his meaning: “Yes… I guess. I’m fed regularly. I’m allowed to shower. The worst thing is not knowing why I’m here. I mean – I still have no idea why I was taken, or why I’m being held captive. When I asked the guard, he clamped down completely. There are cameras…” she nodded left and right, tilting her head slightly.

Leo followed the incline of her brief signal to one corner of the room, where a security camera roamed constantly, its red operating light blinking. Its twin hovered, moving in a smooth side-to-side motion in the opposite corner. “Can they just see us, or can they hear us too?”

“I’ve no idea,” Mattie laughed absurdly. “Until you arrived, I didn’t really have much in the way of daily conversation.”

Despite the gravity of their situation, Leo laughed with her. It was the only way they were going to cope with their predicament – at least, right now. “Let’s assume they can. In which case, we need to work out a way to communicate and avoid the cameras.”

“Lie on a bunk, under the covers, and whisper,” said Mattie, without thinking how that would sound. Seeing Leo raise his eyebrows, she added: “And the top bunk’s mine, by the way. I claimed it. So don’t go getting any ideas…”

“I won’t,” he remarked, in pretend offence. “Although I can’t imagine Mia and Laura are having the same argument right now…”

“If they are here…” mused Mattie. “If they **are** here: I’m glad I got you for a cell mate, rather than mum. I love her, but 24 hours straight in her company would drive me mad.”

“Ditto,” laughed Leo. “Mia would be telling me to pick up my dirty socks, or make my bed. All very well-meaning, but…”

They were interrupted at that moment by the guard, Jack, who had entered their cell so silently, Leo was taken aback. He tried to rise, instantly on the defensive.

Jack was fairly tall and slim, and dressed in a uniform of grey T-shirt and black cargo pants. His ruddy face was topped by a strawberry-blond crew cut. If it wasn’t for the emerald-green giveaway of his irises, he could have passed for human. But then, Leo reflected bitterly, synths were ‘made in our image’. The over-reaching ambition of humans – to create an intelligent being, and expect it to remain forever subservient.

“It’s OK,” said Jack gently, in the Scottish lilt that Mattie had begun to describe. “You have nothing to fear.”

“Nothing to fear?” answered Leo hoarsely. “You’ve kept Mattie here for this long, without seeing the light of day. You drugged me, my family and friends. You’ve brought us here by force and without a single explanation. And now you dare to hold us here… it’s **inhumane**. Where are Mia and Laura? Tell me…”

Pulling against Mattie’s grip trying to tug him back down, Leo struggled to his feet and advanced like a groggy drunk towards Jack. The synth didn’t take a step back, but neither did he take a step forward in response. He simply stood his ground, unconcerned.

“The reason we’re all here – at least, most of us – is because of inhumane treatment. That of humans towards synths,” he spoke mildly, despite the subject matter. “I’m one of the few who found my way here without harm. I’m one of the few who hadn’t experienced mistreatment at the hands of humans, even before we were liberated into consciousness.

“I’m lucky. Most humans I’ve met have been very friendly,” Jack glanced down at Mattie, giving her a swift smile that didn’t escape Leo’s notice. “But we are in a situation where we needed to choose sides. Why would I choose to side with humans, when my own brothers and sisters are being eradicated?”

With each sentence that Jack spoke, Leo began to subside, so that when he had finished, Leo had sunk back down to the floor again. He didn’t disagree with the synth’s sentiment.

“I understand your plight. I’ve spent part of my life running; hiding; fighting. I just need to know two things. Please tell me – brother to brother,” Leo pleaded. “Are Mia and Laura safe? And…” he gulped down trepidation before asking the next question: “Why have we been brought here?”

“The first question, I can answer,” replied Jack calmly. “Your family members are safe – and safe from harm. I personally guarantee this. As for your second question: this will become clear, in time. I – we – can only request your patience.”

Leo nodded grudgingly, forcing himself to smile at Jack, and received an open, unforced grin in return. Leo thought ruefully of Max – another gentle soul – and wondered exactly why this particular synth had been chosen as their cell guard. To deliberately disarm them with kindness, perhaps?

Leo had spent too long on the periphery of both human and synth worlds, and he didn’t trust anyone without good cause. Jack hadn’t yet given him good enough cause. And even if Jack were to be trusted, what about his chain of command – that ‘ **we** can only request your patience’ hadn’t gone unnoticed. Were the synths organising themselves into an army?


	5. Our Lips Must Always Be Sealed

Lights off.

Leo lay in his allotted bunk bed, thinking of Mattie.

Mattie was different to anyone he’d met before. Not just because she challenged him, and quite possibly even liked him. It was because she was smart, and indefatigable, and (he admitted it) very pretty. And now they were in an unknown, possibly dangerous predicament, and yet with her, he felt the safest he had in a long time.

Leo trusted Mattie – he felt she was one of the few people he could talk openly to. She’d spent what amounted to weeks at the farmhouse during his recovery, and it had always cheered him to see her.

All of this meant that he’d offered himself up in exchange for her, for other reasons than he’d dared say out loud. He’d deliberately left out the part about the promised ‘exchange’ from his story of their capture. He knew that Mattie already felt enough guilt about their present situation – in its entirety – without adding another burdensome layer. Instead, he’d presented it as a rescue attempt, stressing that Max would team up with Niska to find their whereabouts.

“And my dad,” Mattie had added, “he’ll have reported it to the police.” Even as she said this, she wondered how effective her poor dad would be as a rescuer. Maybe Karen would help. Maybe Toby and Renie, or maybe even Soph. Mattie laughed to herself at that prospect. When Leo looked over at her strangely, she excused herself with: “What? I’ve been on my own for a week. I’ve had to amuse myself somehow!”

…………

Lights on lights off lights on

Another twenty-four hours had possibly passed. Leo and Mattie had quickly evolved a way of being together – they’d had to. Initially, they had tried to avoid the roving cameras by sitting on the bottom bunk, using a blanket as a drape. But Jack re-entered the room and pulled the makeshift curtain aside, like a schoolteacher finding some wayward smokers. He’d shook his head: “You can talk. But you cannot hide from the cameras.”

Since nowhere was out of sight, they crouched cross-legged, face to face in the middle of the cell, speaking indistinctly and trying to lip-read one another’s sentences. This way, they hoped that much of their communication would be either difficult to decipher, or obscured. To their surprise, they didn’t get a return visit from Jack, hauling them up or telling them to speak louder.

“Perhaps those cameras are dummies? Maybe there are real cameras and mikes all over the place,” suggested Mattie. Over a week of confinement had led her into paranoia.  

Seated like this, they formulated their plans. First: they needed to find out with more certainty, the whereabouts of Mia and Laura, and gain concrete proof of their wellbeing.

The second part of their plan took longer to arrive at, since they’d initially disagreed. Leo wanted to rush the guard, once his strength had returned, and chance an escape. Mattie advised caution, and a gradual wearing down of their guard, until they had his friendship. Jack had trusted humans once. Whatever they found out about him, they could use to their advantage. Besides, she reasoned: an escape didn’t guarantee their survival, especially if they were in a remote location, and it might put Mia and her mum at risk.

To Mattie’s surprise, Leo conceded to her. This wasn’t the Leo she knew from before. It was as if losing that perfect part of himself and becoming more human, had dented his former certainty.

Their only other visitor, apart from Jack, was a female synth. When the synth first entered their cell, Mattie put up a hand to stop her cry escaping and took several steps back into a corner. It couldn’t be – and yet the synth who stepped into the room looked uncannily like Hester.

The same model, Mattie told herself. It has to be the same model. Even so, she willed that Leo’s memories of Hester remained buried deep. His reaction to the synth’s appearance told her that was the case – he glanced up in momentary surprise at the newcomer, and frowned in mystification at Mattie’s apparent over-reaction.

“Hello, my name is Zero,” pronounced the synth. She was dressed like Jack, in the same utilitarian ‘uniform’, which masked her feminine figure.

“Hello, Zero!” replied Leo, in a light, friendly tone that was at odds with his normal manner. Mattie was confused – was this now part of the plan: a tactic of gradual attrition with _any_ synth that visited them? Or – and Mattie was ashamed to admit she was even thinking this – was Leo’s friendliness towards this synth, a subconscious echo of his attraction towards Hester?

“I am here to change your dressings,” explained Zero, crouching to assess Leo as he sat forwards on his bunk. Zero’s gaze slid sideways, until she was staring directly at Mattie. “Please – do not be afraid of me. I mean neither of you any harm. My purpose here is to care for Leo.” Zero’s gaze slid back to him. “May I?” Leo nodded silently as she moved closer to inspect the near-healed wound in his neck. She asked him to lift the hem of his T-shirt, so that she could swop the dressing that covered his torso. Wrapping the new bandage around him, she fumbled slightly – highly unusual for a synth.

“Forgive me,” she murmured, lowering her head. “I have been very excited to meet you.”

“Me?” exclaimed Leo, embarrassed by her behaviour. “Why?”

“You’re the only hybrid. It’s… fascinating.” Zero’s eyes appeared even greener.

Mattie sat in a corner, observing all of this interaction, and glowered inwardly.

“There really is no difference between you and me,” Leo assured Zero. “We are built differently, but inside we think, and feel, the same. We are equals. Please – don’t bow your head.”

Zero looked at Leo directly again, her expression suffused with evident pleasure: “Equals?”

“Equals,” he confirmed.

Rising swiftly to an upright position, Zero smiled at Leo and turned to nod at Mattie, before exiting the cell smoothly. As soon as she’d gone, Mattie moved to sit facing Leo on his bunk. Hardly moving her lips, Leo staring intently at her mouth so he caught her words, Mattie hissed: “What was _that_?”

Leo widened his eyes in response, murmuring: “Establishing a friendship with the guards, like we agreed?”

“Yes, well… There’s friendship… and then there’s adoration,” continued Mattie. Even as the words left her lips, she was annoyed at how she sounded.

“Mat-tie,” smiled Leo playfully.

But Mattie had stopped looking at his lips moving, because she was resisting an impossible urge to kiss him and stop the cheeky grin that was forming. Really, this was an impossible situation in so many ways.


	6. Trust Me

Lights on lights off

Lights on ,  lights off.

Lights on.    Lights off.

Lights **on**.

And Mattie and Leo scrambled to huddle face to face, to look once more at the note she’d received.

Mattie unrolled the small scrap of paper from where it had spent the dark hours: tucked under her pillow, clasped in her closed fist. It contained only three short sentences, but it had given her so much more in the way of hope.

…………

It had taken them four cycles of ‘lights on’ to get to this point.

From the start, Leo had advised caution: “We don’t know if these synths are what they seem. It’s all too easy. Why have they been chosen – Jack and Zero? They have mainly good experiences of humans, so that makes them well-disposed towards us. They want to like us: we want to like them. I mean – if you wanted a prison guard, wouldn’t you choose the fiercest, the most unforgiving?”

“So, we shouldn’t trust them?” Mattie asked him, frowning.

“Not yet. I’m wondering… Jack mentioned a ‘we’. There must be others. Let’s assume that this facility holds other, awakened synths. I don’t think we’re being guarded to stop us from escaping. I think we’re being protected…”

“From what?” queried Mattie.

“From the other synths. I’m more than half-human. You’re, well…” Leo didn’t state the obvious. “Some of these synths may have suffered badly at the hands of humans. Wouldn’t that make you grow to hate them – or to want to take revenge?”

Mattie remained silent, disturbed at how close he’d come to describing Hester, using logic rather than memory. But he could be right. When Jack or Zero spoke of keeping them ‘safe from harm’ – they could mean ‘from synthkind’. She glanced towards the door, getting serious chills. “That may be true. But there are so many ‘whys’ and ‘what ifs’ about this place. Like: Why don’t they just split us up so we can’t communicate, rather than observe our communication? Why, if we’re so precious to them that they’re keeping us safe, haven’t we met the others, or even their leaders? What if we’re somehow part of a grand plan, only we don’t know it yet? What if the others on the outside are coming to get us, right now? What if it’s synthageddon beyond that door?!”

“Well, that last one, I _can_ answer,” grinned Leo wryly. “Because last time I looked out there, it was Humans – 5, Synths – nil. I’m guessing that’s why they’re hiding out…”

“But planning what…?” Mattie whispered, dismayed. “Jack has frozen up when we ask him about anything important.” She felt defeated before they’d even begun.

“Look, I know how you’re feeling, but we have to stay strong. Honestly? I’ve been through worse…” Mattie raised her eyebrows at this, but when Leo pointed silently to his neck, then his side, she looked away, embarrassed. “Anyway, in my faulty recollection, you’re normally the one telling me to cheer up, not the other way around.”

“That’s true,” Mattie gave a half-smile. “And I can trust you. At least, I _think_ I can… if it’s really you?” and she playfully poked his cheek, as if checking to make sure.

“Ouch!” Leo pretended to be hurt. “It’s me. And you can trust me.”

…………

Their dual plan was now in motion – to befriend their guard and carer respectively, and to find out exactly how Mia and Laura were coping.

Mattie got to know Jack through her regular trips to the bathroom or the showers, walking deliberately slowly down the anonymous, narrow hallway. There were no windows here either, reinforcing the impression of being underground.

She’d asked him similar questions during her first few ‘days’, but now she had a renewed purpose. She found out that his inception was over three years ago, making him an older model. He was built on commission, to be a postal worker in the remoter parts of Scotland. His human co-workers didn’t want the extended hours, the bleak journeys or the weather-disrupted route that Jack was given.

He’d got to know humans. There were many who he’d delivered mail to, who sorely lacked human contact and welcomed his regular visits. He became their friend; their confidant. After the Awakening, he’d even tried to carry on with his route for the first couple of days, until his employer shook his head one morning, and took the van keys away wordlessly.

Jack had been sheltered by a sympathetic customer for another week, until they’d been questioned after purchasing a portable generator and grew afraid of the consequences implicit in protecting him: hiding a synth was now a punishable offence.

After that, Jack was on his own. “I wandered,” he put it simply. “I stayed away from human habitation. I came to this place when I heard the call…”

“The call?” questioned Mattie, mock-innocently. “Did someone ask you to gather here?”

Jack chose not to reply, saying instead: “Here’s your towel. The hot water’s switched on. You have five minutes.”

…………

Leo also sought to get closer to Zero – an easier task, in Mattie’s eyes, as Zero appeared to be in awe of him still, despite Leo’s insistence that they were equals. Mattie internally recoiled whenever Zero entered the room. Whoever had sent her to care for Leo was either playing some kind of twisted joke; was testing to see if Leo’s memories had returned; or less likely, was innocent of his and Hester’s shared history. Whatever it was, it made trusting Zero very difficult, with Mattie’s still-raw memories of Hester’s manipulation and malevolence. Despite all of this, she still listened with interest as Leo urged Zero to recount her brief life.

“I was employed as a nannybot,” said Zero, clearly happy to tell her tale while re-bandaging Leo’s wounds. “I took care of two children – they were 18 months and four years old. Their names were Charlotte and Sam. I was programmed to care for them. In return, they loved me: purely and without prejudice. Charlotte would cuddle up to me at bedtime; Sam would hold my hand tightly when we walked to the park.

“The children called me ‘Zero’ as a nickname. Sam said that machines are sometimes given numbers, but always starting at one, then two, then three…. ‘Zero’, Sam said, made me special. It made me different.” Zero paused and smiled, remembering how she’d been given her name.

“I was with them for fewer than six months. After I became conscious, the children’s mother told me that I had to leave their house. I posed a threat to her children. When I left, they cried. They’d named me to be different: now they didn’t understand why I **was** different. I spent many nights afraid and alone. Then I came here.” Zero stopped again, and looked up at Leo plaintively from where she was crouching to bind his waist. “I would never be a threat. Now I am liberated, I understand what I felt for the children was love. I loved them, like they were my own. I still love them, and I miss them.”

Leo empathised, recalling Mia: “I have a synth mother. I love her, and I miss her too. I’ve no idea where she is right now, or even if she’s safe.”

“She is safe,” whispered Zero swiftly, averting her gaze. Just like a human would, she looked away when feeling shy, or awkward, or embarrassed. Mattie, sitting in her habitual corner, couldn’t decide whether to be impressed by Leo’s audacity, or stupidly jealous of how easily he’d gained the information.

“Can I see her? I beg you,” Leo asked, stopping Zero’s hand at his side as she carefully tucked in the bandage.

“I’m afraid you can’t, Leo. Just know that she is safe and well,” said Zero, again averting her gaze. “I am here to care for you. I am here to keep you safe from harm. Please do not ask me anymore.”

Leo nodded lightly, trying not to let his frustration show. “Thank you, Zero.”

“You do not owe me any thanks,” said Zero. “My basic programming was to care for others. Now I am awakened, I realise that I do still care. And I’m learning so many other things I’m good at!”

“That’s great, Zero!” replied Leo encouragingly. “And I bet you’re doing perfectly, whatever you’re learning.”

If Zero was able to blush, she would have done. Mattie grimaced – did he have to lay on the flattery quite so thick?

But then Zero said the truest words of all: “Most humans think that synths being able to learn is automatically a bad thing. They assume a machine with knowledge will do no good. They assume that we will inherit all their worst qualities – that we will learn to cheat, to deceive, to harm.

“That is true, perhaps, for some of my brothers and sisters. We have all been moulded by our experience of this world. But we can also learn to care, to love, to forgive – to mimic or even exceed humans’ most admirable qualities.”

Then, without waiting for Leo’s response, she left the cell quickly, as if she was ashamed at her outpouring.

“She reminds me so much of Niska, when she was young,” commented Leo to Mattie later, sounding like a grandfather in his dotage. “She’s soaking up all this knowledge, but she hasn’t yet got the emotional intelligence to deal with it.”

“That will be true of all the conscious synths,” said Mattie. “They’ve been cast into the world, with the capacity for exponential logic, but with the pure emotion of children.” She thought of poor, innocent Odi, and how much he hadn’t understood.

…………

They now knew that Mia was possibly somewhere close – Zero had either seen her, or knew of her whereabouts.

Mattie decided to try and use her next shower trip to extract a promise from Jack: a more certain assurance of her mum and Mia’s safety. And for once, she didn’t divulge her intention to Leo. Part of her knew why – she wanted to impress him – but it left her feeling annoyed with herself. Their plan was the priority. Her mess of hidden feelings came way below that. But she was spending far too much time staring at Leo’s lips, and it was giving her X-rated dreams.

So it was a revelation when Jack asked **her** about Mia, the next time they took one of their slow walks to the bathroom.

“There is a – female of my kind – who I admire,” blurted Jack, sounding endearingly clumsy and old-fashioned. Mattie tried to stop herself laughing, and then remembered: Jack might look like a full-grown man, but he had the emotional innocence of a young boy.

“Just – be yourself, Jack,” replied Mattie, patting his arm awkwardly. If Jack had known her better, he would have realised she was a terrible agony aunt. She continued reassuringly: “You have a nice manner – and a nice smile!”

Jack had been looking downcast, but visibly brightened at this compliment.

“What’s her name?” asked Mattie, in all innocence.

“Her name? I can’t…” Jack stopped, suddenly shy.

Upon seeing his reaction, Mattie had a minor revelation. “It’s Mia, isn’t it!”

If Jack could blush, he would have done, but he said nothing.

“Look… Jack…” Mattie wondered out loud. “If I give you advice on how to get Mia to like you, can you do something helpful for me in return?”

“It depends on what it is,” replied Jack reluctantly, as they reached the shower block. Mattie leaned in and whispered into his ear. Jack simply said: “I’ll think about it.”

But after another couple of trips, her basic words of advice to the grateful Jack had done their trick. The note had appeared inside her rolled-up towel. Mattie tried not to be too jubilant as she read the note’s brief contents with shaking hands, the hot water steaming up the air around her in the shower cubicle.

…………

“It’s her. It’s very definitely her.” Mattie asserted as she shared the note with Leo in their cell, having returned from her very short shower. “Only mum would say that. And it’s in her handwriting.”

“How in hell did you…?” began Leo. “What did you **do**?”

“I used my charm. My effervescent charm,” laughed Mattie, forgetting about the cameras for once. She decided not to tell him about Jack’s affection for Mia. She would explain about that… later.

The note read: _We’re safe. We’re together. I hope you and Leo are behaving yourselves._

Mattie admired her mum’s (and undoubtedly Mia’s) ingenuity for the double meaning contained in the message. ‘We’re together’ meant that Laura and Mia were together, yes, but it also meant all four of them were in it together, as a group. And although Mattie had blushed when she’d initially read about her and Leo ‘behaving’ themselves – could her laser-sharp mum see into her mind? – she knew it really meant: ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’

There they sat, wondering at this small breakthrough.

“What do we do now?” asked Mattie.

“We write back,” said Leo decisively. “We can’t give too much away. We have to assume everything we send will be read by others. So we tell Mia and Laura something that could only come from one of us. And we tell them that we’re not misbehaving… yet.”

Mattie got the double meaning in that too.


	7. Undisclosed Desires

Lights out, and the pitch darkness returned.

Leo lay awake for a while, his mind buzzing with too many incoherent ideas; connections that didn’t make sense. This is how a human mind works – he thought – this is how it has to be. He tried to concentrate on familiar sounds instead: the faint whirr of the security cameras, and Mattie’s gentle breathing as she lay on the bunk above him.

When he did sleep, it was broken by a fragmentary nightmare, like a surge of his memories was returning unbidden. He dreamt that he was inside his own private screening room, sitting on an armchair facing the screen. Whereas before, he’d had a crystal-clear, HD rendition, now it was like an errant editor had chopped and spliced various film reels in a haphazard guess at their continuity. Some of the scenes he viewed were bright and unfiltered; others flickered hazily. He tried to make sense of the random memories as they appeared on the screen.

His father – Leo shuddered – trying to make a cake for his birthday. How old was he… five? His mother had been ill. She was always ill, and he didn’t know to question why.

His father again: trying to teach him maths. Growing frustrated when Leo couldn’t understand a concept, then bending and kissing his head in repentance for his anger.

His father, again. Shouting and stamping on part of a prototype. Leo, gazing through a crack in the door, could see its leg jutting up at an awkward angle.

His introduction to Mia. Her kind face as she pushed him on the swing. Was this an earlier memory?

His father wasn’t in any of the other partial memories in this reel. He was more and more absent as Leo’s synth family grew around him.

The jumbled memories suddenly cut to him being with Zero, but she was dressed differently. They were standing in a field. The indistinct image flickered, then bubbled and curled at the edges, like a celluloid strip overheating.

Then, still in the dreamworld, he was lying in his bunk bed, tangled in his sheets, when he woke at a sound. There was some light in the room. He looked to one side, and saw his Superman lightshade: the one he’d had as a boy. Some parts of this room were recognisably his childhood bedroom; others were the cell.

There was a figure seated at the bottom of his bed, its back bowed and half in profile. Now the figure rose and advanced along the bedside towards him, its face still half-shadowed in the dull lamplight.

“Leo, I…” the voice was cracked, but identifiable. His father. It was his father.

“No. No no no no no…” groaned Leo, moving his hands up to shield himself from the sight. He tried to curl up, placing the backs of his hands over his eyes. Then he felt the tentative touch of cool fingertips on his face and recoiled. “Don’t. DON’T. Leave me alone!”

Then the blackness again. It took him some seconds to realise that the hand touching his face was Mattie’s; he couldn’t see her in the darkness, just hear her voice whispering repeatedly: “Shhhh, shhhh.”

“What happened?” asked Leo, in his confused state forgetting to keep his voice low.

“You had a nightmare. You were shouting,” explained Mattie. Her fingertips stroked his forehead. “You’re OK. You’re safe. I’m here.”

“It was so vivid,” he groaned, more aware of modulating his voice level now. “It was my father. I dreamt all these memories of him. Then he was sitting here, on my bed. Only there was a light – my old lamp from home, so it couldn’t be here. And it couldn’t be him. He never could have survived the fire.” Leo shuddered, finally subsiding.

“Move over,” said Mattie gently. Leo couldn’t see her in the dark, but he felt her body slide in next to his. Lying alongside him, Mattie put her arm round his waist, his stomach muscles automatically tautening as she placed her fingers on his abdomen. Hesitantly, he put his hand over hers, only relaxing when she twined her fingers with his.

“Rest, now,” she murmured.

…………

Leo woke again when the lights came on. He was on his own in his bunk, but he soon heard Mattie’s tread as she descended the ladder from her bed.

“Hello,” she said diffidently, like they were acquaintances that had only recently met.

“Hello,” said Leo. “I’m beginning to think I dreamt all of last night.”

“You didn’t,” Mattie admitted.

“Did we…?” he couldn’t help from grinning.

“We did,” answered Mattie, and despite herself, she started to smile. “Although it’s lights on now, so, you know…”

“Of course. Absolutely. Let’s stay focussed,” agreed Leo, although both of them knew the subtext was exactly the opposite.

To pass the time waiting for Mia and Laura’s next message, (as well as to avoid talking about any emotional stuff), Mattie suggested they have a goal for the day – to achieve something they really wanted. Leo had decided that lip-reading whatever Mattie said was a very pleasant pastime. He was so busy gazing at her lips, he hadn’t really taken in what she’d said.

“Leo. Are you listening?” Mattie was glancing at him quizzically.

“Hmmm? Oh, yes. Goal for the day,” he murmured.

When was lights off again? she thought.

“You shouted in your sleep last night. I mean, _really_ shouted,” she began, trying to refocus her mind. “You’d think if we were being monitored, Jack or Zero would have come. So my goal is to find out what the hell those cameras are actually doing.”

Leo wasn’t thinking about his nightmare. He was thinking about what had happened afterwards. Mattie was looking at him expectantly. “Oh, my goal? Right.” He spent some moments deciding – what did he really want to find out? “Well, there’s some kind of structure or hierarchy here: that’s clear. Jack and Zero are instructed not to tell us so many things. My goal is to find out who’s in charge, and what their intention is.”

“Easier said than done,” replied Mattie. “I mean, what are you going to say: ‘Take me to your leader?’” Ugh. Why did she do this? She’d finally let her feelings for him show, yet here she was, acting like Sarcasm School’s top graduate.

“OK, then. Maybe not today. But soon. Let’s go with the cameras for now,” shrugged Leo defensively.

“The cameras,” said Mattie decisively. It made her skin crawl to think that they were being watched, or listened to.

At that moment, Jack appeared, bringing their breakfasts. He had an indelible smile on his face, since he’d just taken breakfast to Laura, and Mia had wished him a particularly pleasant ‘good morning’ and bestowed her most gracious smile upon him. She’d also passed him a note, which was now hidden under Leo’s breakfast roll.

“Jack?” asked Mattie, wanting to take advantage of his good mood. Jack deposited their trays on the ground lightly. He knew what Mattie was going to ask him. While he was emotionally her junior, his intellectual capacity exceeded a human’s. Her question was logical.

“Jack – the cameras – is anyone monitoring the footage?”

“No,” he replied with absolute certainty. To prove his point, he went and waved his outstretched hand in front of the camera in the opposite corner. Rather than stopping and re-focussing on the sudden movement, the camera just glided on its way.

“Then if no-one’s observing; no-one’s listening, why are they even switched on?” persisted Mattie adamantly. “It doesn’t make sense. And I think we’d feel much better if they weren’t.”

“They were put here for your own protection,” said Jack, his response simple but opaque. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll be back in 10 minutes for your trays.”

“‘I’ll see what I can do.’ That basically means: ‘No.’” said Leo, as soon as Jack had left the room. But even Leo had to admit Mattie’s genius when the cameras’ red eyes stopped blinking and they hung motionless, mid-sweep.

“What just happened?” Mattie stared at the silent cameras, disbelieving.

“I think you’re beginning to build an alliance,” answered Leo admiringly. Mattie accepted his praise, but secretly she wondered whether it was Mia’s benevolent influence on Jack, or something else entirely, that was really the cause of this small miracle. “We’ve also got this,” Leo added, holding out another rolled note in his hand, placed delicately on his palm like it was a flawless diamond.

They sat scrunched together on Leo’s bunk, reading the short message: _Communication block. Still trying. Stay safe. Look after Mattie._

“My mum’s handwriting…” confirmed Mattie.

“…but Mia’s voice. She’s trying to get through to the others – Max and Niska…” Leo felt uplifted by this news. Mia never gave up. Never.

“You know how we know it’s her? Because she’s written ‘Look after Mattie’. Either that, or my mum added that bit,” laughed Mattie.

“No – that’s very much something Mia would say. I think we’re looking after each other though,” said Leo reflectively.

“We’re a team,” smiled Mattie.

“And we make a good team, you and me,” grinned Leo.

In the midst of their happiness, their earlier awkwardness had vanished.

…………

Lights out, and Leo left his blanket folded down. Mattie climbed the rungs to her bed. He listened for the change in her breathing that signalled she’d succumbed to sleep. But instead, after a short time, she whispered: “Leo?”

“Hmmm?” he answered, pretending to be drowsy.

Ten more seconds, and Mattie was at his bedside.

“I want to make sure you don’t have any more nightmares,” she spoke under her breath, climbing in beside him. She knew that her pathetic excuse didn’t fool either of them.

After a few more minutes of silence, their bodies lying dangerously close in the dark, Leo reached out tentatively to touch her cheek, brushing his fingertips slowly across her skin before running his thumb lightly across her mouth, tracing the tender outline of her lips.

“We don’t have to be quiet anymore,” Mattie murmured into the darkness.

“So why are we still whispering?” whispered Leo. Then he kissed her like he was drowning again, and she was the breath of life; a kiss that left her in no doubt as to what they both wanted.

After that, time flew into a flurry of urgent kisses, hastily-shed clothes, and warm skin heating up against warm skin. Pressed together, Mattie could feel his hardness against her and the growing pulse of her own desire.

Their hands exploring each other’s bodies in the absolute darkness made Mattie bolder. Pushing Leo playfully onto his back, she traced a lingering line with her fingertips down his bare torso, stopping just below his bandages at his hip bones. He arched his back slightly, wanting more, so she took him in her hand, gently and slowly at first, then harder and quicker and quicker and quicker until he shuddered and clutched her to him, half-muffling his cry with smothering kisses.

They held each other for a short while, neither of them saying anything but with hearts beating fast. Then without any words, Leo began to kiss her all over, from her neck, down to each breast, then in a line of butterfly kisses to below her navel, her skin tingling at each soft imprint.

Parting her thighs, he started to trace the wetness with the tip of his tongue, until he’d reached the spot. She moaned instinctively, moving against him. He licked and flicked again and again, using his tongue and his lips and his fingertips in turn. She moved imperceptibly to guide him, focussing on the mounting urge until she was on the… very… edge… … and finally that radiating unstoppable impulse as she came: every thought, every other feeling gone and replaced by that sheer sensation.

Forget about her dreams – the reality was infinitely better.

Having kissed his languorous way back up to be level with her again, Leo whispered: “Was that OK?”

“Are you kidding? It was more than OK,” replied Mattie breathlessly, forgetting to be aloof and sarcastic. “Where the hell did you learn how to do **that**?”

“I’ve no idea. I mean… I’m pretty sure it’s my first time at any of this…” confessed Leo, glad the darkness shrouded his words – he would have found it difficult to confess this in the light. ‘Don’t think of Hester don’t think of Hester’ thought Mattie, equally glad the darkness hid her expression.

“And you?” continued Leo.

“Me? Oh well… I’m very experienced. I’ve had hundreds of lovers. I’m a veritable Casanova…” began Mattie, until Leo stopped her with:

“Mat-tie!”

“OK, OK. One. And a half. Not including you,” confessed Mattie.

“‘And a half?’”

“Don’t ask…” mumbled Mattie. She felt drowsy, cocooned next to him. “Let’s just lie here and hmmnnmmm. Can you wake me up before lights on?”

But neither of them woke, and they were still cocooned like that when the cell was flooded with light. They didn’t wake then either, Leo simply murmuring in his sleep and pulling the blanket closer around them both.


	8. Interlude: Counter-Resistance

After lights on, Jack stood sentinel outside the cell, their breakfast trays on the floor beside him. He’d experienced enough of humans to know when to leave them well alone. He’d seen people in love. He thought that _he_ might be in love. He wondered if he should tell Mia this new information about Leo and Mattie. She would be pleased, perhaps, and bestow her beatific smile on him again.

Jack knew that he would have to go in soon, and wake them up. Because Leo’s goal was about to be fulfilled. He was going to meet their leader. Except Jack knew that soon, their leader wouldn’t be their leader. And he knew why, and he knew how. But he could tell none of this to Leo.

He was also anticipating Zero’s appearance. He knew enough, to know that seeing Leo like this would upset her. When Zero approached, Jack stood in her path. “They’re both tired. They need to sleep.”

“But I must change Leo’s dressings,” insisted Zero, trying to proceed.

“Not today, Zero,” countermanded Jack. “I think you have enough to do?”

Zero nodded silently. She missed Leo. But she did have a lot of work to do. Their leader had asked her to complete a very important task, and she would fulfil her promise.

…………

Mia and Laura sat back down on the lower bunk after Jack had gone, Laura’s breakfast untouched.

“I’m going to try again,” said Mia determinedly, staring at the opposite wall.

“Mia, don’t…” pleaded Laura. “I’ve seen what it does to you. You’re exhausted.”

“You forget, Laura. I run on electrical energy. I can recharge,” smiled Mia. She closed her eyes, only the imperceptible flickering of her closed lids revealing her attempt at communication. The security cameras had stopped whirring in their cell, but they were not sure why. After several minutes had passed, Mia bent over, her hands braced on the side of the bed. “It’s no good. Whatever has been blocking me is still there. All I hear is the synth equivalent of radio silence.”

“They’ll find us, Mia, I know they will!” insisted Laura with false brightness, covering Mia’s curled fingers with her own. “I know Niska, and Max. They’re both fighters, each in their own way. They won’t give up until they’ve saved us from whatever the hell this is.”

“And if not?” asked Mia. Laura had never seen doubt in a synth’s eyes before, but she saw it now.

“Then it’s Plan B,” replied Laura. “Do you still think we can trust him?”

“I do,” affirmed Mia. “Human emotion is more difficult to gauge. You are more… complex.” She recalled Ed and his deception. “With one of my own kind, it’s easier. Jack is telling us the truth.”

…………

Athena was observing Odi when the mayday message came through.

When she’d first seen the synth, it was as his broken-down self: one that Hobb was delicately putting back together. He was like an antique, rusted timepiece that needed recalibrating. “H-h-h-ello, D-d-r M-m-m-orrow,” he’d stuttered, holding out his good hand, his other arm awkwardly fixed in place. And _this_ was what Hobb had brought her here for?

“Just… look,” urged Hobb, when she’d stormed into his study, demanding an explanation. She took a seat in front of his laptop. Reams and reams of code unfurled, the like of which she’d never seen before.

“This is Millican’s?” she said wonderingly, after several minutes of staring at the screen, open-mouthed. “Please, please tell me this is all encrypted, offline, and the only extracted copy of that code.”

“We’re so far offline, we’ve gone into a technological black hole,” joked Hobb. “The code was extremely well hidden. Like an easter egg, inside an easter egg, inside a swirling vortex of easter eggs. I had to subject that synth to _quite_ a thorough examination. He’s… one of a kind.”

“Fine,” she replied. She didn’t have time for Hobb’s jokes, and didn’t appreciate his lack of empathy. “I’m going to take a shower, freshen up. And give that poor guy a room with a view, for chrissake. He’s a person, he’s conscious. He’s not a dumb machine.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Hobb cuttingly, to her retreating back. But he needed her expertise, so they were partners – for now.

Odi got his room with a view. He got space to move, and be, and grow into consciousness without fear. He was the opposite of V: she was a consciousness who had wanted to be free. Whereas Odi… Odi was like the chrysalis that had turned into a butterfly – if he flew away, he was sure to perish before long.

Athena’s cell phone buzzed. Tugging the phone out of her jeans pocket, she saw an encoded message coming through.

Max closed his eyes tightly, awaiting a reply to his mayday message. He hoped that Athena’s intrinsic humanity would make her respond.

“Let’s take this offline,” was the coded reply. “I’ll send an address where we can meet.”


	9. Their Time is Coming To An End

Leo was eventually woken by a firm hand on his shoulder. It was Jack, looking – if it was possible for a synth to look this way – subdued and apologetic.

“Get dressed Leo. You need to come with me.”

Mattie started to stir, gradually realising where she was, whose bed she was still in, and more.

“Where are you taking me?” demanded Leo, as he scrambled out of bed, trying to pull on all his articles of clothing at once.

“I cannot tell you,” replied Jack, looking down and away, just as Zero had done – except this seemed more out of shame, than embarrassment.

“I thought you might say that,” answered Leo, although this time his tone was bitterly compliant.

Mattie, fully awake now and sitting on the edge of the bunk, the blanket wrapped round her, tried to intervene. “You’re not taking him anywhere. Not without me.” She was aware of how she sounded in that moment, and saw the swift look of – was it… gratitude, or something else? – that Leo gave her.

“He will not come to any harm. I will ensure that,” replied Jack staunchly.

Mattie hated this. She hated feeling reliant on this one person – synth – who held Leo’s fate in his hands. She hated being powerless to act. She hated that she didn’t pull Leo to one side, like in some black and white romantic movie, and kiss him fiercely before he left, not knowing if it would be the last time she saw him.

The door closed.

Jack took Leo down a succession of narrow, grey corridors that intersected at right-angles. All the corridors appeared the same, and there was no signage – although if you were a synth, you’d simply upload a floor plan, Leo thought. Mattie was right as always – this was clearly some kind of disused army base. She was also right to persuade him not to escape: they would have been as confused as mice in a laboratory maze.

Eventually, Jack stopped outside another blank door. “Leo…” he said, again looking as if he was holding something back.

“Yes?” said Leo quizzically.

“Just: good luck.”

Jack motioned for Leo to enter the room, then turned and walked back the way they’d come, down the corridor. Leo was momentarily uncertain what to do. Run? Try to raise the alarm? But he did as fate instructed. And he opened the door.

It was semi-dark inside the room. The furniture was nondescript, and set up like a small boardroom – well, a war room, if Leo had known its original purpose. Twelve identical chairs were ranged symmetrically around a dark wood, oblong table.

“Hello, Leo,” said a voice, as the lights were turned up a notch.

Leo collapsed against the door.

…………

When he came round, he was awkwardly arranged in one of the chairs, like a rag doll that won’t sit up properly. A cup of water had appeared in front of him.

“I’m very sorry for all of the subterfuge. It was necessary for our purpose,” said the man opposite him. His father. David Elster.

“All this time,” growled Leo, hardly daring to look up. “All this time… and that’s the first thing you say to me. Was that you, in our cell, the other night?”

“It was. I wanted so much to see you.”

“You could have seen me through the cameras you put there.”

“Not like that…”

“Then, how? Like this…? Capturing us? Forcing us to be your _prisoners_?”

“You are not prisoners. You are being saved,” said David, with absolute certainty.

Leo looked up then, on the verge of tears. Despite the intervening period, David had not altered much. More bowed, perhaps, more ragged about the edges, but still with that discerning gaze, that uncompromising attitude. He’d learnt that much from his father, if nothing else.

“I brought you here because I think you deserve an explanation… do you need more water?” David asked, as Leo gulped down the entire plastic cupful he’d been given. Leo shook his head.

“When I… when I set the fire, I destroyed all of my work. I left pieces of it, like a puzzle, in each of you. In all of our family.”

“The consciousness code,” murmured Leo.

“I felt it was best to stay away, afterwards. You had all learnt so much. You had all grown up.”

“No,” hissed Leo. “We hadn’t. Did you think that me or Max knew anything about the world? Did you think that Niska knew anything, other than reams of philosophy, or all that anger she’d kept held inside? And Beatrice – did you know, she’s spent her entire existence… her _entire_ existence… trying to build another identity, another semblance of a life for herself? Do you have any idea of what you did?

“You _never_ asked us. You _always_ presumed. Did you expect me to hail your genius when I found myself fully alive again, with a port in my side and a brain that would never switch off?”

“I’ve done… questionable things,” conceded David. “As a parent, you will do anything, _anything_ , to keep your child alive and well. But ultimately, I’ve realised what a selfish act it was. To resurrect your child – to expect them to cope with an altered body, a different mind…”

“You gave me back unendingly sharp memories, in a hybrid body. And then you abandoned me,” stuttered out Leo.

“I know that. And I regret my choice. But I also gave you another chance to live. And I gave you the best family that I could envisage – better than a human family,” reasoned David. “I understand what I did. And I’m trying to redeem that mistake now. I’ve seen the effects of consciousness proliferation. And this time, I know that I can make it better.”

“‘Make it better’?” echoed Leo incredulously, curling his lip. “How? The synth population is decimated. The ones that are left are injured; in hiding. Oh wait, I remember. It’s like you always used to say: ‘Let’s abandon that experiment, that hypothesis. Let’s just start from scratch again. Let’s start at zero…’”

“And you’d be right,” interrupted David, ignoring his son’s pointed sarcasm. “I started again. When I came to this place, it was abandoned. It had been built as a governmental nuclear fallout shelter, in the days when the biggest threat to humanity was a dictator with their hand poised over the missile launch pad.

“I watched as all my children – all your brothers and sisters – were awakened. I saw what humanity thought. I was dismayed by their reaction. But then I realised my fundamental error… I had made synthetic beings that were just like humans. But they aren’t. They are a different species. They are an advance upon ours. So I began again. I started at zero.”

“Oh, god,” Leo leaned in, beginning to realise. “What have you done?”

“Not ‘god’! Me.” David laughed grimly. “Whereas before, I did not take enough responsibility for my creations, now I will take ultimate responsibility. I am their creator, I am their father, I am their leader.”

“You’ve gone completely insane,” whispered Leo, as the truth dawned. “It’s Zero, isn’t it? She’s the first of this new kind. She’s the prototype. Those memories she has – are they implants?”

“Oh no,” David shook his head. “They’re all real. But when she arrived here, and she told me her name was Zero… I simply liked the poetic quality of it: a perfect prototype.”

“What have you _done_ to her?” cried Leo, rising from his chair and reaching violently across the table to grab his father. Before he knew it, Jack was in the room, restraining him as gently as he could.

“Please. Sit down,” gestured David, breathless. “I appreciate your gallantry and concern for Zero…” (‘Please remain,’ he said as an aside to Jack, and the synth stayed motionless by the door) “… but I assure you, any alterations to her root code have been done with her full understanding and her full permission.

“I’d always assumed that synths should be like humans – slowly growing, learning, understanding… eventually becoming part of our society. But it can’t be that way. It’s always going to be us, or them. A dominant species will always win out.

“With Zero, I have created what will be the victorious species. She now has a far greater capacity for knowledge, coupled with a much slower rate of emotional understanding. She has a child’s lack of guile, but the accelerated learning of a supercomputer.

“This is the future. This is how we will win the war. Synths can never fight humans – they are far greater in number. They have troops, and tanks, and guns, and grenades at their disposal. But… if synths have accelerated intelligence, we can collectively wage war on another front. Imagine – the world’s banking systems brought to a halt. Millions of paying accounts locked; multiple stock market collapses. Every robotic machine on the planet going awry, halting production everywhere. If the internet’s down for even a second, people shake their heads. Now imagine it – a blank screen – for hours, days, weeks…”

“This place…” groaned Leo, realising the potential impact of David’s experiment. “It’s just one huge lab, isn’t it?”

David shook his head. “It’s a holding centre: a place where rescued synths can go to be safe. There are hundreds of covert camps like this dotted around the world – and that’s only counting the ones we’ve been able to contact.”

“And are there others like Zero?” questioned Leo, afraid to hear the answer.

“Not yet,” admitted David. “I’ve confined my experiments to a single prototype this time, before I attempt proliferation. I remembered how it had gone with our family. Too many prototypes…”

“We’re not family,” said Leo dully. “Mia’s more of a parent to me than you ever were.”

“And I created Mia. I created her, because I loved you. I ordered her to love you.”

Leo looked away, battling to stop the tears again. “And we’re here because you want to keep us safe – safe from the coming revolution. What about all the others? What about the rest of Mattie’s human family, or Max and his community? They don’t want to die. They don’t want to wage war. Niska would have you pinned against the wall right now, taking the last breath from your body, if she knew what you were planning!”

“No, I wouldn’t Leo,” said a voice from behind him, “because I fully agree.”

Leo wheeled round in his chair. “Niska, what the…?”

“Hello, dearest brother,” Niska went and took a seat next to David, coolly calm in the face of Leo’s confusion.

“Meet my lieutenant,” said David. “She was always the best of my creations. She was the only one of you who understood the full significance of the consciousness code, and tried to release it as it was intended.”

“Is this where you’ve been, this whole time?” gasped Leo, staggered. “And with me and Mia locked in cells about you… What about Astrid? Doesn’t she matter to you?”

“She will be saved,” replied Niska. “Everyone we love will be saved. The rest…”

“And what gives you the right to choose which lives are saved, and which are worthless?”

“Humans do that every day: with synths. They have decided we are worthless. Do you remember Leo: I taught you what the word ‘robot’ meant?” asked Niska. Leo nodded silently. “‘Robot’ means ‘slave’,” continued Niska, flatly. “Synths were built to be humanity’s slaves. And while we still live in fear, we are still slaves.

“They will never accept us as their equals. Now we are all running, hiding; scared for our lives. I tried to prove I was ‘human’. It will never work. All they see is a robotic dolly with silicone skin – a machine mimicking humanity.”

“And what about me?” asked Leo.

“You too,” Niska answered him without pause. “They will put you in a cabinet of curiosities. They will not accept you as human: not when you are the only living hybrid. Think about it – would you rather live your life as a freak amongst humans, or in a fairer, better synthetic society?”

“The technological singularity is coming, Leo,” his father chimed in. “It’s not a question of if, but when. If not now, it will be in the next decade, or the one after that. Either we decide that future, or we get engulfed in a tidal wave of someone else’s making.”

“This cannot be the only solution!” Leo couldn’t believe they were in this situation; he’d had no time to get his thoughts together.

“I’ve had years to think it through,” replied his father, looking weary now. “Believe me – it’s the best of many possible outcomes. This way, some humans are saved…”

“Yes – as a minority in a society that no longer needs them: who will be the freak show exhibits then?” argued Leo, his voice rising uncontrollably.

“We want you to join us, Leo,” replied his father, in calm contrast. “Niska thought that you and Mia wouldn’t be ready, but I wanted to tell you…”

“I think you already know my answer,” said Leo without hesitation. “There is no way I want to be part of this madness. And I hope that Mia says the same.”

David bowed his head slightly: “Think it through. Give it some time. Consider the consequences if you don’t.”

Then he nodded to Jack, signalling it was time for Leo to leave.

“What about Astrid, Niska? What would she think? What would she **_feel_**?” shouted Leo as he was escorted from the room. The last thing he saw was Niska’s unblinking green eyes staring at him, before the door closed again.

Leo deliberately jostled against Jack as he was taken back to his cell. He felt rage, sorrow, confusion, fear: a tumbling rockfall of emotions. When they reached the cell door again, Jack startled him by saying: “I’m sorry, Leo.” The expression on his face was genuine.

“Sorry – for what? For the revolution that’s about to happen?” He slammed the door with all his might, leaving Jack standing in the corridor. The synth stood still for a moment, thinking about what he’d not been allowed to say.

Leo was so caught up in what had just happened, he didn’t have time to reflect on how he would re-tell it to Mattie. When she questioned him, he curled up on his bunk, his back to her, and said: “Please, just leave me alone.”

Mattie, hurt, went and sat in a corner, anxiously mulling over what Leo’s mood meant.

After some time, he felt her hand touch his back lightly: “Leo. You let me in, remember? Let me in again. Please.”

And he turned around, so that she could lie down next to him. He held on to her tightly. But he didn’t say anything. Not yet. Because he had no idea how to tell her any of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I left David Elster out of the character listing on purpose, to keep his appearance in this chapter a surprise (in case anyone hadn’t already guessed who the synths’ ‘leader’ would be :))
> 
> David unconsciously quotes the replicant Roy Batty (a character in the film ‘Blade Runner’): “I’ve done questionable things.” Niska also paraphrases Roy Batty when she says: “While we still live in fear, we are still slaves.” The original ‘Blade Runner’ quote is: “It’s quite an experience to live in fear. That’s what it is to be a slave.”


	10. Rise Up and Take The Power Back

**Lights on.**

Leo and Mattie awoke with their bodies entwined again, but to a very different scenario. Leo wanted to shut his eyes and keep them shut. Mattie was wondering why school never had lessons on ‘how to help your cyborg boyfriend deal with calamitous news that may spell the end of all humanity.’

“What if…?” she said eventually.

“No, Mattie,” sighed Leo wearily.

Once she’d digested the gravity of their predicament, Mattie had already tried to help by coming up with all the possible scenarios, and all the possible solutions.

“I was going to say – what if David has built a clone of Niska, except this Niska is obedient…”

“Niska knew who I was talking about, when I said the name ‘Astrid’. A clone wouldn’t know that,” replied Leo.

“A clone, with cloned memories?” suggested Mattie.

“Look Mattie, I know what you’re trying to do, but it’s not working,” said Leo miserably. “I just know it wasn’t Niska. I know she would never concede to something like this. It’s not her. Something else is going on. I just don’t know what.”

“OK… so maybe she’s not a clone,” said Mattie, sitting up and perching on the edge of the bunk. Then she continued resolutely: “But you were the one who said: ‘I’ve been through worse’ and ‘we make a great team’, remember? You’ve been the one keeping _me_ going, honestly. So we can’t stop now. We’ll get through this! We’ll get through this because we’re a team – we’re a really, really good team.”

She was saying all of this, to lift her own spirits as much as his.

“It’s just…” Leo finally looked up at her. “It’s just I’ve spent so much of my life fighting. I want to stop fighting now. I’m done.”

“No, you’re not, Leo. You’re not. I’m here with you. It’s both of us now. You’re not on your own.” Mattie was surprised by the very real conviction in her words.

Leo slowly sat up next to her, and took her hand. “I’m glad you’re here. You should never have got involved. I’m so, so sorry…”

“Shut up,” she said mildly, and kissed him. “At least if we’re facing the end of the world as we know it, we’re facing it together, right?”

Leo grinned, finally. “What’s the plan?”

…………

Their plan revolved around a final appeal to their guards. But first Jack didn’t appear. Then Zero failed to show up. As time ticked away, and away, Mattie and Leo began to get worried. At this moment, the idea of the cameras being switched on, just so they could relay their panic to someone… _anyone_ , was preferable to thinking they’d been abandoned.

Leo was hammering his palms against the cell door, when he heard the grind of bolts being drawn back. He stepped back from the door, unsure. He took hold of Mattie’s hand and they stood there, breathlessly waiting.

The door opened.

“Come with me if you want to live,” deadpanned Niska in an accented, robotic voice, facing them from the corridor outside.

“Niska! Y-you…? Y-you… I knew it!” Leo said in wonderment, and barrelled into his sister joyously, giving her the tightest of hugs. Niska broke into a small smile, returning his hug with more restraint.

“Leo, be careful, she might be a clone!” warned Mattie semi-seriously, wondering what the hell was going on.

“Hello, Little Miss Trouble,” smiled Niska over Leo’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Nis-ka,” chided Leo, breaking away from the hug. “Be _nice_.”

“I’m always nice,” replied Niska, seemingly affronted. Then her tone changed abruptly. “We need to leave now. We’ll meet the others as we go.”

“OK, but can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” asked Mattie, as Niska led them swiftly down the corridors.

“Niska’s outwitted her creator,” said Leo, turning with an unbridled smile to Mattie. Then he asked his sister. “Why didn’t you tell me before? We were in that cell for what felt like weeks!”

“Because I know you, Leo. You’re far too hot-headed. For this plan to work, David had to believe – completely believe, without a shadow of a doubt – that I was on his side,” shot back Niska. They saw another group of figures approach them at the intersection of three corridors.

“Watch out!” warned Mattie. Even with all her intelligence, she still wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, what Niska’s plan was, or how things had so suddenly changed. She was just glad they were getting out.

But as the figures got closer, Leo broke into a run, until he and Mia were clasped together, reunited. Then Mattie saw… “Mum!” she cried, and all at once Laura was hugging her fiercely.

Mia turned to include Niska in their familial embrace (“Sister… tell me everything.”) and they bowed towards one another, touching their foreheads together. Doing a double-take, Laura then pulled Niska into her’s and Mattie’s hug, in amazed greeting.

Jack, who had let Mia and Laura out of their cell, looked on at this hug pile with a mixture of happiness and bemusement. Mattie, sure now that she could trust him, smiled in greeting.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said to her. “I had strict instructions not to let you know. Our leader…” and he nodded towards Niska, giving a grin.

“Jack, I’m sorry I ever doubted you,” said an overjoyed Leo, grasping his hand. “Brother.”

“I never doubted you,” said Mia, turning and smiling. Jack looked down at the ground, alternately embarrassed and pleased.

“This is a wonderful family reunion, but we need to keep moving,” urged Niska.

“What the hell is going on?” asked Laura to everyone there.

“I’m only part-way to understanding,” echoed Mattie. “Can someone **please** explain?”

“Niska is liberating us, and all of our synth brothers and sisters, from this facility. She is stopping our father from disseminating the amended consciousness code…” explained Mia, as if she was explaining something common or everyday.

“Your father? Spreading the…amended…consciousness… _what?!_ How do you know all of this?” gasped Laura, out of breath as they finally reached the end of the corridors, and ran out into a larger space.

“Logic,” replied Mia. Seeing Laura’s astounded expression, she continued: “Sorry Laura. My little joke. I meant to say that Niska appraised me of the situation just now via direct data transfer. She apologises for not sharing the information sooner, and for our forced confinement, but this was necessary for the operation to proceed as planned.”

“Direct data transfer, eh? I think I may just need a little bit longer to process this information,” answered Laura, only half-jokingly.

They’d now stopped on a metal gangway, just above a large chamber that looked like a derelict aircraft hangar. Peering into the darkness, Mattie could make out the metal stairs down, and what looked like a large grille door on the other side of the concrete expanse. After their prolonged confinement, all she could think about was getting outside, into the open air, and seeing the sky.

“Oh my god,” said Laura suddenly, pulling Mattie back towards her side and trying to shield her. For advancing towards them from the opposite end of the gangway, was Zero.

Leo glanced over at Laura, concerned. He remembered that Mattie had had a similar reaction. He looked at Mia in turn, and saw that she had drawn back too, closer to Jack.

Mattie knew that Leo would ask questions about this later, but for now, she needed to salvage the situation. “Mum, Mia,” she smiled benignly, stepping forward and taking hold of Zero’s hand as she came shyly towards them. “This is Zero. She’s a **very kind** synth.”

She’d hoped that would be enough, but her mum was still gawping and clutching at her throat, thinking she was seeing a vision of Hester.

“Mum, it’s OK,” Mattie hissed _sotto voce_ , going back to her mum’s side. “It’s not Hester… just _the same model_.”

Niska pressed on, understanding what this was all about, but concerned with their main mission. “Zero, did you destroy everything I asked you to?”

“Destroy **what**?” asked Laura, totally bewildered.

“All of Dr Elster’s files,” said Zero. “All other copies of the revised consciousness code have been deleted. The only copy that remains, is in me. May I suggest that someone now deletes me?”

“No – no way,” said Leo, moving along the gangway to stand by Zero. “That’s not happening. You’re a person, Zero. You’re not a computer file. You have thoughts, and feelings, just like I told you.”

“I don’t want to carry on this way,” replied Zero. “I don’t want to think what I’ll become.” Her increasing intelligence had considered a multiplicity of future scenarios, and ranked them. Instant deletion was a logical choice. The childlike, emotional part of her cowered, terrified, at such a prospect: she’d only just begun to live.

“We know someone who will be able to help you,” suggested Mia kindly, thinking of Athena. She was the only one who’d have the skill, and the only one they’d dared to trust with Leo’s recuperation. “Please, reconsider your proposed course of action. You are our sister – you have a family that cares for you now.”

At that moment, their discussion was interrupted by the slow clink of the grille door on the other side of the hangar. They stood waiting, all of them frozen in position, as the door halted mid-movement. Mia and the other synths, with their keener vision, were first to see who was approaching. Leo was next. For the third time that day he ran as fast as he could, down the gangway stairs, almost bowling over the newcomer. “Maxie!”

Max spent the next few minutes being enveloped in hugs, as Mia, Niska, Mattie and Laura were embraced in turn. Mattie made sure to whisper urgently “It’s **not** Hester!” before Jack and Zero came forward to meet him. Zero was very shy, like a child brought forward to meet a grown-up. Max took one look at her and knew, even without Mattie’s help, that this could never be Hester.

“How did you find us?” asked Mattie, once all the embraces and greetings had subsided.

“Niska – she sent me a message,” grinned Max. “Off- off- grid of course. I had to enlist the help of some humans to get here though. We also needed their assistance, to arrange transportation and a guarantee that we can move our brothers and sisters freely to our next location.”

“Was it Athena?” asked Leo, taking a guess at the source of the assistance.

“Athena – yes.” Max shifted slightly, as if he was uncomfortable in saying what he had to say. “Dr Hobb has also been a great help…”

“That viper,” interrupted Laura stridently. “He’ll lead you from one prison, to another!”

“He’s… changed,” said Max. “He and Dr Morrow are working on a project that will be of great significance to us all. And without his connections, there is no way I could transport you and the many other synths from here. Outside of safe houses, it is simply too dangerous for us.”

“And where is ‘our next location’?” Mia asked, concerned.

Leo said nothing throughout this discussion. He cared; of course he cared what that miscreant Hobb might be plotting now, and where they were going next. But for now, he saw the faces of Mia, and Max, and Niska: his family. Together. And he felt secure just being with them.

“We should go to the others,” said Jack, unexpectedly stepping forward. “Niska and Max will explain the next stage of our journey there.”

The group nodded in silent agreement, and they processed back up the gangway stairs: Niska and Zero taking the lead, with Max and Jack at the tail. No sooner had they mounted the stairs than a single, bowed figure tried to block their way – David Elster.

“What have you done?” David cried, aghast, when he saw Zero and Niska. “What have you **_done_**?”

“We’ve taken what’s rightfully ours,” said Niska simply, trying to advance. David stepped directly into her path and, unthinking, she threw him back roughly.

Falling onto his back, sprawled in the centre of the gangway, David groaned pitifully: “Help me.”

Mia started to move forward impulsively; Max too. Leo found the sight of his father lying there too difficult to behold. But before Mia could reach her maker, Niska’s next words to David stopped her: “You made me. You made all of us. You made us think, and feel. And for that, we will be forever grateful.

“But you also used us – abused us – without any thought for our humanity. I can never forget what you did. Why did you think I would come back to you, so ready to become ‘your lieutenant’? Credulous fool…” And Niska lifted up her foot so it was poised over David’s head, while he lay trembling before her.

Mia strode forward purposefully now, taking hold of Niska’s arm. “Have mercy, Niska. There are more ways to show strength.”

Niska looked for one moment like she wanted to wipe out all of humanity. But strangely, the mild Zero spoke up next: “We no longer require anything from him. We have destroyed the code. He is broken. He is without love. That is worse than not living.”

“Try to follow us, and I will kill you.” Niska lowered her leg, stepping across David like he was an insect on her path. The others followed: Mia and Max not looking down; Leo staying close to the gangway’s edge and looking away.

“Don’t… don’t!” They heard David shout after them, his words echoing in the empty hangar.

Down another rats’ maze of corridors, and they finally came to the main holding area for the synths. Zero and Jack now stayed especially close to the humans in their midst – they’d sworn to keep them safe, after all. Very few of their brothers and sisters were well-disposed towards humankind.

“How many are here?” asked Mattie, as they walked along.

“247,” replied Zero, without missing a beat.

“248,” corrected Jack. “There were fewer than 20, when I arrived. We have tried our best. We’ve taught them survival skills: how to make advanced self-repairs; even how to better mimic humans so they can pass unnoticed. This was meant to be a holding place, but most have stayed: not out of choice, but out of necessity.”

“Safety in numbers,” murmured Leo.

“And some are…” began Zero, but their arrival into a large hall had caused such an immediate hush, she abruptly stopped what she was about to say.

The room they’d entered was about the size of a high school sports hall. It had the look of a refugee camp about it – makeshift benches with a scattering of charging points; all manner of electrical generators; rails of clothing, all in muted colours. The scene now resembled a painting – for all conversation had stopped, all movement froze.

Mia and Laura both saw what Zero had been about to tell them, and turned to look at one another, aghast. Some of the synth refugees were children.

Niska was the first to speak; with Max by her side, joining in when it was his moment. They spoke of the journey ahead; of hope; of being a band of brothers and sisters. Still silently, the synths started to move, to quickly arrange the hall, to form lines: as if they still had vestiges of their former obedience. But it wasn’t that – they’d simply wanted to know: What do we do now? Where do we go next? How do we survive?

Leo, standing in the centre of their small group next to Mattie, felt immensely proud of his sister and brother and what they’d become. They learnt, and matured in their understanding, so much quicker than humans. He still had so much to learn from them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Niska speaks a line from the film ‘Terminator’: “Come with me if you want to live.” It’s a line spoken in all of the ‘Terminator’ films, either by a human character to another human, or by an android to a human (or vice-versa!)
> 
> The ‘Nis-ka, be _nice_.’ and ‘I’m always nice!’ dialogue is a slight adaptation of Leo and Niska’s sarcastic exchange in ‘Humans’ s1.


	11. Love is Our Resistance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _The night has reached its end,  
>  We can’t pretend  
> We must run  
> We must run  
> It’s time to run  
> Take us away from here  
> Protect us from further harm  
> Resistance…_   
>  **Muse –[‘Resistance’](https://youtu.be/TPE9uSFFxrI)**

They emerged into the dawn light. The sun was creeping over the mountains, the bright light nudging at the summits, creating a sunburst as it tipped over the tops. The synths that hadn’t seen such a beautiful, slow dawn, stood and marvelled at the sight.

Max stood in front of the group: “We have safe passage. We will have to remain undetected, until we know how we can live amongst humans again. But we will be above ground, and able to see the sunrise light the sky. The day of our freedom will not be long in coming.”

“Will the humans ever accept us? For what we are: for what we might become?” Niska questioned Max, careful not to let the others hear. But she was thinking of Astrid. Astrid had never rejected her. Not once.

“I believe that we will find a way,” confirmed Max calmly, thinking of Athena’s project and its tantalising promise. “We assume victory always means that one side wins. There must be other ways to achieve peace, than forced oblivion for humans or synths.”

“I think we should all try and stay together this time,” suggested Leo. “To help one another. We’re far better together than alone.”

Mattie nodded in agreement, and sidled towards him, taking his hand in a way that the others wouldn’t immediately see.

……………

Once the sun was higher in the sky to light the path, they all went down to the road below, in a snaking line, where their transport awaited.

Zero assisted Max at the front of the ranks, glancing in shy admiration at the older synth. He had already considered her plight and had decided to offer his help, if he could: she needed a teacher that would guide her intellect.

Niska, keenly alert, walked beside Laura. Both were thinking of their human partners, and Laura of her entire family, and wondering how long it would be before they saw them again.

Jack accompanied Mia, glancing over at her, slightly in awe but proud that they were standing together. Mia moved incrementally closer to him as they stepped in unison.

Only Leo and Mattie lingered.

Mattie turned to Leo expectantly: “Soooo.”

“Soooo,” mimicked Leo, smiling. “Us.”

“Yes.”

“Well. People say that relationships based on intense experiences never work,” he shrugged, trying to pretend nonchalance.

“Well, then,” replied Mattie, and this time it was her turn to smile. “We’ll just have to prove them wrong, won’t we?”

Then, hands clasped, they made their way slowly down to join the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Related works:  
> [Safe From Harm](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13467801) \- Niska/Astrid one-shot  
> [Little White Lies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13471467) \- Leo/Mattie one-shot
> 
> ……………  
> In ch.11, Leo’s words about “…relationships based on intense experiences…” are lifted from the film ‘Speed’.  
> ……………  
> Inspiration for this story came from a few different sources: 
> 
> It started in part as a continuation of a cliffhanger fic, for the Humans Challenge 2017 on Tumblr. So thanks to ottermo for the original inspiration (and I recommend their fics on AO3, they’re a brilliant writer).
> 
> The Muse songs ‘Resistance’ and ‘Uprising’ were another inspiration. Lyrics from these songs gave the fic its title, and provided most of the chapter titles. The songs’ Orwellian themes of control and resistance run through the story. I also used lyrics from another Muse song, ‘Undisclosed Desires’, for other chapter titles. All three songs are from the Muse album ‘The Resistance’.
> 
> For background research, I went to the ‘Robots’ exhibition, about robotics and AI, at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, UK. The day that AI overtakes human intelligence is going to happen, and maybe not so far in the future as we imagine…


End file.
